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finance/IDEA_2019_WoCCode.md

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# Title
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WoCCode: Peer mentoring for the Women of Color coding community
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## Summary
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Women of Color (WoC) -- which includes Black, indigenous, and Latinx
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minorities -- are the most underrepresented demographic from high
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paying industries, including software engineering. Yet WoC are flush
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with the talent, creativity, and social insight to solve complex
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problems and lead in the software industry. This program seeks to
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unite WoC and other members of minoritized groups, to battle feelings
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of isolation and marginalization that are prevalent in educational
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institutions and industry settings. Using a dedicated Slack space and
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cohorts of 4-5 people, we will create a peer mentoring network for WoC
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and members of other minoritized groups to engage, receive feedback,
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and troubleshoot issues around their participation in open source
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software communities, including Astropy.
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## Team
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Program Lead: Lia Corrales (@eblur)
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Program Mentors and Slack moderators:
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* Lia Corrales
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* Kelle Cruz
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* TBD (invited Camille Avestruz)
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Anticipated 2020 cohort: 20 people from underrepresented groups in the
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United States (Black, indigenous, disabled, and gender-minority
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coders) or other underrepresented groups from the national stage (see
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Plan). We are open to any career stage, from undergraduate to research
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professionals.
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Guest webinar speakers: 6 industry or research professionals
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## Plan
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We will solicit applications to join the program via Twitter, AAS
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CSMA, and by emails to academic department chairs. We will accept
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applications from anyone, and will select a cohort in a way that
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prioritizes most marginalized demographics.
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We operate under the principle that supporting the most marginalized
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in our communities supports the well-being of all members of the
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Astropy community. This program seeks to engage with people from
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groups that are marginalized in the United States, the Global South
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(Central America, Latin America, Africa, and less-privileged classes
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of Southeast Asia), or Global North (European, Northern Asia,
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Australian) members from marginalized demographics such as being
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indigenous, non-binary or queer, and disabled.
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We aim for 20 participants, to be separated into cohorts of 4-5 people
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with similar interests.
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Participants will be connected via Slack, with one channel for each
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cohort and a general chat channel. Slack moderators will be assigned
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to moderate cohort chat spaces to help answer technical questions
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regarding code. Each cohort is expected to hold regular meetings, 2-4
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times per month, for peer-mentoring. (These sessions should be
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independent of Slack and will not include the Slack moderator assigned
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to them.)
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There will be one webinar scheduled per month. Similar to "code
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coffee" chats organized by the Program Lead at MIT, partipants will
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present a new tool, piece of code, or professional development
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practice. The webinars will toggle between peer-led webinars and a
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guest speaker from outside the program. Guest speakers will be
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professionals from underrepresented backgrounds, in either the
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software industry or academia.
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Some examples of guest speakers from underrepresented groups, who will
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be invited to give a webinar, are:
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* Nicholas Hunt-Walker (Senior Software Engineer at Verica)
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* Duane Lee (Customer Support Engineer at Starburst Data)
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* Rudolfo Montez (Data Carpentry instructor)
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## Impact
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Through peer mentoring, we will create a safe space for participants
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to experiment with their code and to engage in open software
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practices. They will be introduced to coding practices and
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professional development during the monthly webinars. Additionally,
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they will learn the stories of the guest speakers who are members of
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minoritized groups that have created spaces for themselves in industry
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and research, and could also serve as role models for participants in
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earlier career stages. This all serves to equip participants with the
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foundational skills and social network to function in majority-white
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open source software spaces, giving them the opportunity to contribute
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more effectively to the Astropy code base and community.
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## Budget
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When possible, and based on the rules and regulations of their
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employers, WoCCode participants will be compensated with an
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honararium. If compensation is not possible, participants may
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volunteer their time to WoCCode. The budget summary below assumes that
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all participants will be able to receive money, to arrive at the
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maximum possible cost for the program.
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Slack moderators will receive an honorarium of $500, for their work in
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moderating the Slack forums, answering questions, and arranging for
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guest speakers.
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It has been well documented that members of underrepresented groups
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typically earn less money than white and cis-male counterparts with
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similar employment. Hispanic women receive on average 54 cents per
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dollar earned by white men, Black women receive 62 cents per dollar,
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and white women receive 79 cents per dollar ([click here for
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source](https://www.nationalpartnership.org/our-work/resources/economic-justice/fair-pay/quantifying-americas-gender-wage-gap.pdf)). As
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such, monetary compensation is one of the most important ways to
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support underrepresented groups in our fields. For engagement in the
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program, participants will receive a $200 honorarium.
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Guest speakers will receive an honararium of $300 for a one-hour
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webinar given to the program participants. This is based on the
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industry standard of $150 per hour compensation, anticipating a total
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of two hours for preparing and giving the webinar talk.
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We also request $2000 in discretionary funds. This money will be used
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to pay additional speakers, moderators, or program participants. This
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need arises from the simple fact that we may find more than 20
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participants from ideal situations, or if we need more moderators. We
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also wish to dedicate the discretionary funds towards advertising the
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program, or for supporting a participant who may be in need. The funds
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could be used, for example, to support a participant's travel (or
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remote conference registration fee) to present work related to the
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WoCCode program.
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Budget outline:
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* $200 x 20 = $2,400 in participant honorariums
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* $500 x 3 = $1,500 in Slack moderator honorariums
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* $300 x 6 = $1,800 in guest webinar speaker compensation
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* $2,000 in discretionary funds
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* Total request: $7,700

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